About Baking Normals

Guys I am using Blender and I am see that people use xNormal for baking normals. I just do not get why xNormal is neccessary. Because Blender also has baking option. So what is the point of using an external tool? Is it better than Blender or they do different jobs? If I want to transfer normal information from high res poly to low res poly what is the best workflow for me? Also I heard some goods about Hand Plane. Instead of using xNormal + Handplane, is not it better to use Substance alone? As I you can export normals from substance to unity without any distortion. I am a bit confused so I need your help a bit.

 

I've never used xNormal but you are right Blender can do those things just search on YouTube for Darrin Lile videos. He is a good teacher.

 

In general the sticky threads and the wiki on http://polycount.com/ is the best source for these questions.

I don't like blender for any baking task, even though I like blender in general. The baking features just feel clunky and weird to me. For me personally, using Substance Painter 2 to do all the baking and texturing seems to be the most hassle free pipeline for my usual usecases. When that would fail for me for some reason I'd look at xNormal + Handplane next. But I really haven't tried all the baking solutions currently out there. Off the top of my head there's also Knald, the baker in the Quixel suite and some new baker that I can't remember the name of, because honestly I think we've got more than enough choices by now.

 

Thanks for answer. Now I do not want to pay for substance. Do you think xNormal + Hand Plane do the job? One more question: Can I transform normals from high res to low res model using xNormal + Hand Plane? In Blender we have to put 2 meshes in the same position etc. I just do not get how to do the same thing in xNormal? Is there a 3d space in xNormal to do this or xNormal does the same thing with a different method? Also I heard about Knald and it seems that is good for AO.

 

Acutally Blender does the job but you know Unity' and Blender' normals are different so you have to use another software to correct this issue. One option is Hand Plane or you can use substance because substance solve this issue inside its so you do not need to use Hand Plane if you use Substance.

 

If you have an older computer like i have you can also buy the Marmoset Toolset 2 which I found the UI easier to understand and use then in the examples then the Substance Suite.

The Substance Suite requires at least an Intel HD Graphics 4000 while the Marmoset Toolset 2 requires at least Intel HD Graphics 3000. The price difference is about $100.

https://www.marmoset.co/

https://www.allegorithmic.com/

They both have try & buy periods.

 

Thanks for answer. Can I ask for which purpose are you using Marmoset?

 

Where do I find its baking functions? It's news to me that it even has one. I only ever used it to render my models for presentation purposes.

Sure!

Your meshes need to be aligned before you export them. I'm sure there are tons of tutorials for xNormal baking workflows, it has been a widespread tool for years.

 

I always fixed messed up normals in Blender but I mostly buy models from 3rd parties. However the models, UVs, and my hand painted textures were really simple. I will download xNormal & Handtool though. xNormal I've heard good things about a long time and it's free.

 

My bad on the Marmoset, I've only trialed it for converting to PBR texture sets with older DAZ/Poser models for which I didn't alter UVs.

 

Guys this topic was very informative and thank you! Lets keep help each others and thank you again for your answers.
I wanna mention about Krita for honor of this speech. If you are looking for an alternative to Gimp, I think you should try Krita.

 

I've grown used to Gimp but I will try Krita. Maybe I will get less pixelated icons. Does anyone know of a free scalable SVG plugin for Unity UI? It would save me much hassle.

 

I am not sure what you are looking for exactly but it seems this topic for you: http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/611635/anyway-to-import-vectors-ai-svg-eps.html

 

Thanks. I think I will see if UnitySVG can be finished into flat one colored opaque UI icons easily, if not, not a big deal.

 

By the way I recomment you to watch this video about Krita:

Also it is free.

 

Thanks

 

There's also manga studio/clip studio. That one costs money, though.